Question About Air Compressor Drain Setup

[niferous]

I've got a large air compressor and I've got an idea for a tank drain that I wanted to post about before I started construction on it. Right now their is a normal drain on the bottom on the tank but I have the air compressor mounted in a little sound enclosure shed behind my garage and I don't want to have to walk around back all the time to drain it. I also don't want to set-up an auto drain as I have neighbors that will get nosy as to what the loud hiss they hear every so often is. My HOA is pretty laid back but I have one neighbor I could see throwing a fit over it. So I'm trying to devise a way to drain it, manually, from inside my garage.

My idea was to run a little 1/4" line from the bottom of the tank and follow the 3/4" air line I already have setup into my garage. From their I'd plumb it in to a little clear sight glass set up I have hanging around from a past project. I went online to the manufactures website and the sight glass and valves are rated for 250 psi, so no worries on pressure causing a leak. Basically I'd leave the inlet valve on the sight glass open and the outlet closed so I could see water accumulate. Either before I start to use the air or when I see the water level reach a certain level, I'd open the outlet valve and let the water drain out. As for an exit port I'd probably just use some more 1/4" line I have and run it somewhere that my neighbors won't hear hissing away.

I've got all the material I need so the price of the two gauge *****, sight glass, 1/4" line, etc isn't a factor. In fact the sight glass setup is about ten years old so I'd like to finally use it for something.

My concern is that pushing the water through the drain port, than about four feet up the wall of my shed, and finally into the sight glass could possibly cause my tank to not properly drain. I was thinking the easiest thing to do would be to put a 1/4" check valve right after the elbow coming out of the drain port so that water can flow out, but not in. Hopefully I'm just overthinking this whole thing but it doesn't hurt to ask before I go and start drilling holes in walls and running lines. Quick drawing attached.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[thool]

Any chance you could simply run the line from the bottom of your tank, through the garage wall, and put the drain valve in there? If necessary, mount the tank slightly higher so that everything flows down and the valve is at a comfortable level.

 

[Bobf]

Seem s like a lot of work to drain a tank, but it may work. Not sure about running the line up hill as you may not get any flow until the output valve is opened.
I would just rig up a length of 1/4 or 5/16" steel or brass rod from the inside of the garage to the valve in the shed, to open/close the valve. When I purge my comp tank it's more of a blast of air/water than a hiss You could add a piece of pvc or copper pipe on the output side stuffed with a pot scrubber or two as a muffler or run an elbow and into a small gravel cache in the ground.

 

[niferous]

Thanks for the input. I did some research and agree that it may not actually fill with water until I opened the outlet valve. Therefore I think I'll probably just rig something up where I can drain it from inside the garage. I'll follow up with my final solution once I figure it out for future reference.

 

[Sticky Grips]

There are timed drains available. A valve opens are a present time, purging the condensate water from the bottom of your tank.

You can also use an air brake bleeder from a truck with a pull chain. That's how my tank is setup.

 

[sberry]

You are on the right track but skip all the grief with the glass and crack the valve once in a while after you use it when its convenient and put a simple muffler on it of shove the line in the ground in to upside down plastic coffee can buried.
Personally wouldn't screw with any other equipment than that, you soon learn when you get any appreciable water in it.
Its been a while, we been using some air and its been humid. I read a thread, I walk over and hit the valve on the tank and can hear it. This was used plumbing tubing and had to flare exactly 1 tube, all made from scrap in a few minutes and plumbed thru the wall. If I did this again or changed it might make some type of receiver that let gravity drain into then purge and really mostly on my horizontal unit.
Kind of like auto float drain as you were thinking with a sight glass. Remember, if you use tubing you can start simple and add features. Just cause you don't have it all doesn't mean you cant use it.
Secondary to that is something that takes longer to learn but starting simple is often the way to get it to work best and sometimes it is good enough and no further effort is required. Build and buy all the features first and it often leaves a lot of unused work on the table.

 

[sberry]

When I began this career was super guilty of this, build, buy it all try to get it perfect and it was time and effort consuming. Today I look to the salvage and scrap first which you may have with the sight glass which is not a bad idea btw. Just you may not need it to zip a shot of water out 15 seconds once a week.

 

[sberry]

We have an neurotic obsession with draining air tanks followed only by almost irrelevant piping losses. Many times it cause as many problems as it solves especially if people start fiddling with factory designed systems.
Couplers and hydrants are another one, personally the only place for the female is at the end of a hose reel or fixed whip with the other end screwed to the system. Rapid air and all that focuses on pieces I really don't even need.

 

[sberry]

The couplers in this pic could be removed although the one before the reg could be used as a bypass. As it turns out we needed 3 taps, one goes to the hoist which has fixed whip drops, one to a reel and one feeds the paint booth.
The coupler was from a temp which has now been plumbed on.